HMS Follies puts retiring dean in the spotlight

The centennial show runs through Saturday at the Media/Arts Center at Roxbury Community College. (Tickets are available at the door.)

"It's our gift to the first-year students," said Heather Gunn, director of the show, a tradition since 1907. "We make fun of all the professors we had last year and they have now."

Gunn said the time devoted to the show has meant a lot of nights when the 190 full-time medical and dental students involved get only about two hours of sleep a night. That makes it good training for their third year, when they will be working on hospital wards, she said.

Her training to direct the HMS Follies comes from 13 years as an actor in Los Angeles.

"I got into Harvard Medical School because they needed me to direct the second-year show," she joked.